New Software Tool Helps Marines "Collaborate" with Families Back Home

(Phoenix, AZ August 6, 2004) --
Although American GI's may be far from home, they can still feel close to their
families. Now a squadron of Marines on assignment in Iraq can communicate with
their families as the result of a volunteer partnership between an IT solutions
company, an Intel employee, and a collaboration software company.

The project came about when Intel employee Tony Kasovich
volunteered his off hours to custom program a secure,
password-protected website for a friend's Marine squadron
scheduled for deployment to Iraq. Ensynch, an IT Solutions
company headquartered in Arizona, offered free hosting for
the site, and introduced Tony to GroveSite, a user-friendly
collaboration software tool that would erase the need for
custom html programming and would make the secure site
available in hours rather than months.

The resulting HMH466 Wolfpack site changes every day as
spouses and parents post messages, words of support and
photos from the homefront. On the other side of the world,
it's worth the time and effort to stand in line for Internet
access, as the Marines in Iraq must. The Commanding Officer,
LtCol. Mark Jebens, uses the webpage called "CO Corner" to
communicate to the families, usually boasting about the
excellence and dedication of the Marines and how their
families can be proud of them. A "Homefront " page - managed
by spouses (including that of the CO) - has information for
the families based in the San Diego area about upcoming
activities or how to get pay questions answered. The
"Message Board" gets a workout everyday, as Marines and
their family members post questions, comments, and words of
encouragement. The spouses reply to each other with help
finding physicians and congratulations on new births. "This
is an awesome way to stay connected with each other and with
our Marines," says Diane Jebens, the CO's wife and a HMH466
Key Volunteer. "Are we just really lucky to have this
website? Every unit should be doing this," says another
spouse.

The site also boasts ever-changing photos, including
squadron photos (posted as thumbnails) of the Marines on the
job in Iraq. "As I viewed the pictures, I found my son! What
a relief to see him! It makes the deployment more bearable,"
says one parent. Most beloved are the Wolfpup photos -
pictures, announcements and height and weight statistics for
new babies born while the Marines are overseas. Some Marine
dads are seeing their new babies for the first time via
GroveSite.

"When I first viewed the Message Board all I could say
was WOW! Lots of communication and questions. The site has
given Marines and their families the ability to remain in
touch over an extremely long distance and through trying
times," states LtCol. Jebens.

During a military deployment, many families stay in the
local area, but others return to live temporarily with
parents or family. For instance, one Wolfpack Officer's
spouse returned home to her family in Brazil. Supporting
these often-dispersed families is the job of the squadron's
Key Volunteer network; as part of the Marine Corps family
readiness program, volunteer spouses undergo training and
become key command representatives to facilitate the passing
of official information to the families of deployed
personnel. Typically, most information is passed via
telephone calling trees – still, many activities which
strengthen the unity and cohesiveness of the spouses are not
available to the spouses who depart the immediate area.

"What has been fantastic about this website and the
degree of autonomy and control which gives us the ability to
personalize it so easily, is that remote located families,
such as the spouse in Brazil, are brought back ‘into the
local area' via networking...the end result is that the
spouse continues to receive the mutual support from the
other spouses through the web postings and photographs not
only from the family activities, but also from their forward
deployed Marines. Seeing their Marine smiling and with
friends on a regular basis, alleviates concerns back home
for their Marine's safety and welfare. This allows the
spouse and family to more readily continue on with their
normal day-to-day activities...which has the end result of
‘speeding the deployment along,'" Jebens continued. "I've
heard more than one spouse comment, ‘they just can't believe
on how quickly this deployment has gone by.'...in fact, this
deployment is one month longer than our ‘normal' 6 month
deployments."

As the deployment continued, Lt Col. Jebens noted other
benefits. "The site's ‘user control' enables me to
immediately respond to family concerns, questions and most
importantly address and correct any mis-information or
rumors that routinely inject themselves during lengthy
deployments and cause families unnecessary concern or
consternation back home, "says LtCol Jebens. "Essentially,
I've been able to put out small fires immediately before
they become raging infernos that can build suspicion and
mistrust between the command and Marine families."

"Partnering with Ensynch and GroveSite has been great for
the team of Marines and volunteers," adds Tony Kasovich, the
volunteer who started it all. "I was able to quickly create
the site, and the GroveSite software allowed Marines and
volunteers alike to become productive within an hour,
managing both content and users.

About GroveSite

GroveSite offers simplified external collaboration tools that provide an easy, fast and affordable way for organizations of all sizes to share information through a hosted application across the Internet. GroveSite was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, with offices in the Boston area. For more information, please contact Jane Hagen at GroveSite at 866-952-9880 and visit
www.grovesite.com.